When a struggling or even a thriving business wants to have its operations analyzed, the most objective way to do so is to call in outside consultants with nothing to gain by calling it as they see it.

Then again, most thriving businesses don't have to tell anyone -- or have anyone tell them -- how great they're doing; and many struggling operations attempt to ignore reality by sticking their heads in the sand.

Likewise, when the governing body of a sport wants to have itself judged or have certain eras placed into proper perspective, it's probably best left to others. So when NASCAR recently sent out a news release proclaiming that "NASCAR's Golden Age of Competition is Now," the main premise of which was to declare that "NASCAR racing was more competitive than ever," according to "a new NASCAR statistical analysis," it was met with some skepticism.

Taking into account such statistics as cars on the lead lap, average leaders per race and margin of victory, the news release claimed that racing at what is now the Nextel Cup level "has become more competitive and more unpredictable than ever."

Never mind that there are other numbers that could be manipulated to dispute this claim. The fact is that "Golden Ages" of any sport is about more than raw numbers.

"What does that mean -- The Golden Age?" former longtime driver and current television analyst Rusty Wallace asked. "I guess I would need for them to clarify that for me a little more."

Generally, when someone refers to the Golden Age of a sport, it is in reference to the best times in its history. Using that as a measuring stick, Wallace and longtime racing promoter Humpy Wheeler, who now is president and general manager of Lowe's Motor Speedway, were asked if they believe the current era of Nextel Cup is as golden as those who run the sport seem to believe.

They both said no, and then explained themselves at length.

"It's not the Golden Age of the sport," Wheeler said. "If you look at the Golden Age, it's when there was great drama, there was great competition, there was tremendous escalating popularity. And I'm not sure that our Golden Age is not ahead of us. We're sort of in between right now. I think to a certain extent the Golden Age was in the '60s, and that's where things really started going -- and then they took off dramatically in '85 to the 2001 area. If there was a real Golden Age, that's probably when the one or two were.

"You know, the Golden Age doesn't necessarily mean when you had the most people at the races or drew the best television ratings and all that stuff. It's the drama of the races, how they were, the personalities. We may just be in a period now where we're waiting on the next one."

So there could be more than one Golden Age, according to Wheeler. Wallace agreed, at least to an extent.

"The sport to me has changed. It's a wonderful time to be in the sport as a driver. It's a tough time to be in the sport as an owner because it's so expensive," Wallace said. "I would say the glamorous years in NASCAR were 10 years ago. Look at all the different paint schemes, and the merchandise sales going crazy. Now it's a lot more business-oriented; a lot of people are struggling financially.

"The races are really good, and that's obviously important. But things have changed. I don't agree that this is the best time in NASCAR. I think 10 years ago was the best time in the sport, or maybe even earlier." (Continued)